Chronicle Hunter
by Ann-Chovi
Summary: Snare the Echidna (oc) and Shadow the Hedgehog, fight to collect and protect the elusive Master Emerald Shards from the wicked Dr. Robotnik. All the while battling bounty hunters, SwatBots, Dark Legionares, and a White Hedghog bent on revenge!
1. New Friends, Old Enemies

**Chronicle Hunter**

**Chapter1:**

New Friends, Old Enemies

By Ann-Chovi

"The blazing sun, the hot sand, the waves breaking against the shore," the purple echidna paused as a wind carrying tiny granules of sand brushed her cheek, she sighed, "I feckin' HATE the beach!" She yelled as she started walking again, at least this one was deserted, she thought to herself. The whole reason she had become a Chronicle Hunter in the first place was to avoid other mobians. She trudged along, her shoes making small prints in the sand. The wind blew her hair back, and her quills to and fro. At least the breeze is pleasant, she thought to herself. Soon she saw the ruins in the distance, her destination. 

"Ugh, finally," she mumbled. Breaking into a run, she took off. Among echidnas, she was the fastest there was, there were even those who compared her to the 'Great One', but she scoffed at them, she could never match the blue blur's speed. Even so, the sand flew up behind her as she neared her destination. She skidded to a halt right in front of the entrance. Peering into the rusty opening, she took a few cautious steps, then confidently strode into the ruins. After a few minutes of climbing through the wreckage of the site, she stumbled upon a room that seemed to have power going to it, there was a green light emanating from behind the door. She tapped it, and it fell to the ground with a crash. She jumped a bit at the sound, but recovered quickly. A quick look into the room revealed that everything inside was still operational, in fact it looked like it had been built yesterday! In the center of the space, where the green glow was coming from, there was a stasis chamber that held a black figure. Curious, she tiptoed up to it, afraid she might wake the inhabitant. As she got closer, she could see that it was the form of a dark hedgehog. Suddenly, she tripped on a cord and fell onto a control panel, as soon as she started to push herself up, the stasis chamber began to open. By the time she had fully recovered from her fall, she found her face less than an inch from the mysterious hedgehog's, who was now glaring at her through crimson eyes.

"Who are you?" He demanded, his eyes focused, never moving from her sea- green ones. Not used to being this close to someone else, let alone have them stare her down, she got nervous. She tried averting her eyes, but there was something about his gaze that prevented her from doing so. Meeting his glare with defiant eyes, she firmly replied, "Snare." He continued to stare at her. Breaking out of her trance, she decided to ask her own question.

"What about you, what's your name?" The dark hedgehog seemed taken aback by the inquiry. He paused a moment and a confused look came over his face.

"...I don't remember." He said quietly, looking towards the floor. Snare felt a bit of pity for the strange being in front of her, and though she was still a bit wary of him, she put her hand on his shoulder. Instantly, he tensed up and shot her a look that would frighten death itself. She pulled her hand back quickly. His face softened a bit and the confused look swept over him again. Snare looked about the room for a sort of identification plaque or something, spying something golden at the base of the control panel she had landed on, she looked hard. In faint letters it read,

"Stasis Chamber 426 – Shadow the Hedgehog". The name struck her in an odd way, she almost recognized it, yet if she did, and it was caught in the recesses of her mind. She looked up, and with a mildly arrogant smile, faced him. "I know you're name," He stared at her expectantly, not saying anything, moving, or even blinking.

"Your name is Shadow!" She exclaimed triumphantly. He just continued to stare.

Suddenly, her Chaos Chronicle scanner began going off. She about smacked herself, "Oh, I forgot! I was after that damn Chronicle! God, I hope-" Kraasshh!!!! Suddenly the right wall was nothing but a smoldering pile of rubble. She and Shadow squinted a bit at the light that was now flowing into the room. Silhouetted against the light was a large robotic form. A low, maniacal laughter came from it. Snare's eyes narrowed instantly, her pupils shrinking to form thin slits in anger. "Robotnik...." She said in a low, dangerous tone. Shadow's ears perked up at the name, so familiar.... had he really been in stasis so long that he couldn't remember his past life? He shook it off and focused his attention on Snare, whose fists were tightening and expression growing ever more vicious by the moment.

The low laughter continued, "Why, Snare, what a pleasant surprise! To see you here, and with an old enemy of mine as well! Well, even HE cannot prevent me from obtaining this master emerald shard!" He roared as he triumphantly held up a small, glimmering piece of green gem. He bowed. "Thank you for leading me here, I never would have thought one of these would be in one of my own abandoned factories!" He laughed some more and pressing a button on his arm, disappeared in a flash. Snare glared at the spot where he had been, without a second thought of the hedgehog behind her, she turned to her scanner and strode off out the doorway, a somewhat disoriented Shadow in pursuit.

After trudging through more openings and tripping over more debris, the pair reached a small crevice in the wall, Snare's scanner was going berserk. Reaching in, she pulled out a small glowing blue sphere.

Tired of the silence, Shadow spoke up. "Aren't you going after him?" She remained silent, passing the sphere from hand to hand. "Didn't he take what you were looking for?" She pushed some buttons on the small trinket. "Don't you even care that he's getting away!?" He was getting annoyed at the fact that she was ignoring him. Though she just continued to play with the sphere, this time twisting the top and bottom halves in different directions. "What was that master emerald thing anyway?"

"Something he can't have all of," she finally said. A white light beamed from the small orb in her hand. She let go of it and it floated in midair. A soft, blue light began to flow from within it; like a fantastic display of magic. The gentle light formed a map projected on the wall.

"If he were to get all of the pieces to the most powerful gem on Mobius.... Let's just NOT think about those consequences." She murmured. "Anyway, I'm the only one who can open these maps and documents to the hidden shards, he just finds ways of following me." She said, pointing to the image on the wall being projected from the small orb. "Besides," she continued, "he didn't get BOTH of them here,"she said with a wry grin, holding out a small emerald piece in her hand. It resonated with a soft, green glow. Almost as if entranced, Shadow held his hand out over hers, as the soft light touched his hand he shuddered, a flood of trange images, memories he assumed, swept across his mind. And just as quickly they had appeared, vanished. Snare pulled her hand back cautiously. He shook his head to get rid of the feeling he had just experienced. Snare just stared at him for a moment, raising an eyebrow.

"Oooookaaayy, Never seen anyone react THAT way before..." she said with a shrug "I guess you can tag along with me for a while. I could show you around, ya know? A LOT has changed in the past 2000 years, I know." Snare said with a hopeful grin.

"What makes you think I need YOUR help?" He scoffed, his cold demeanor returning. She just grinned, "Well, from the date on that stasis chamber, I'd say you've been out of it for quite some time now, Somewhere 'round 2000 years to be precise. How ELSE are you going to get around a practically foreign planet?" He continued to glare at her. She frowned, "fine, have it your way. I'm outta here, I've got more shards to collect ya know?" She said and walked out. Though a bit slower than her usual pace, she had a feeling he would be following her whether he said he wanted to or not. Shadow sighed after she had gone a few steps out of the doorway, and with that, he silently followed her out, his shoes not even making the faintest noise as he walked steadily behind her. Of course making sure to keep his distance, this echidna was a very confusing character. He didn't want to get too involved in her affairs, or he might get dragged in as well.  
  
Snare exited the old lab, and took in the sunshine, looking over her shoulder at the entrance just as Shadow came out, wincing at the bright light. "Sooo... decided to join me?" She smiled as she turned. "...For the moment," he replied. She chuckled a bit at his response and the two began their trek across the beach to Snare's mini-jet, the Guardian.  
  
A mile or so down the beach, Snare broke into a run, kicking up sand behind her, a cocky smirk on her face, as if to challenge Shadow to a race. Confusion registered on his face for a moment, but soon he was running right beside her. "Is that all you've got!?" She said, speeding up. By now, her mini-jet was in view. Shadow speed up more blowing past Snare and almost knocking her down because of the wind current he had created. Within seconds, he was waiting for her at the Guardian.

"Hey! You're not supposed to win!" She joked, "I've never met anyone who could run that much faster than me; that was amazing! Where'd yo-"

"Where are we going?" He asked rather abruptly. She stared at him blankly for a moment, not used to being interrupted. She'd have to get used to being around other mobians again, that was for sure.

"To town," she said after a moment, "I need to get this chronicle to the museum, since they were made so long ago, they hold a lot of historical value." Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Besides, I'm good friends with the curator, and he's always looking for new things to study and put on exhibit." She said, hitting a small button on her arm computer. As she did, the cockpit opened, revealing two seats. "Hop on in!"

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Well, that's it for the first chapter, my first fic that I've released to the public, so be gentle on critisicm please! Danke ;


	2. Complications

**Complications  
**  
Disclaimer: Shadow and Robotnik property of Sega, Kragok and the Dark legion property  
of Archie Comics.

Just minutes later, Snare landed her jet- "The Guardian", just outside the limits of a very large city.  
  
"This is 'town'?" Shadow wondered, not expecting any reply, and not receiving any. The glass cockpit door opened with a soft whoosh, and Snare jumped out, taking in the sights.  
  
"Home sweet home..." she mused. Turning just as Shadow jumped out of the vehicle. "Welcome to Neo-Echidnaopolis, where the innocent suffer, the wicked rule, and Lord Kragok's word is law." She said with a sigh, "and people wonder why I search for relics of the Golden Age." She murmured to herself. "well, Entrez-vous mesa mis!" She gestured to the boarder leading into the intimidating city, smiling weakly. Shadow looked at her for a moment. 'This echidna sure likes to hear herself talk,' he thought, striding in with a discontented Snare trailing behind.  
  
They wandered though the streets for what seemed like hours, all the while, Shadow's crimson eyes darting back and fourth, ever alert. He spied a paper hanging on a nearby building. Upon further examination he saw it was a reward poster, with his strange purple companion's picture on it. He was still studying it when-  
  
"_Yaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!_" Smack! A tall, midnight blue bat crashed just inches away from Shadow into the side of the building. The strange fellow peeled himself from the building, doing a quick body check.  
  
"Nothing broken?" He said, obviously surprised. "I'm **ALIIIIVE!!!** It's a miracle! Another perfect landing!" Spying two passing echidnas, he turned to them, "Don't worry about me, I'm okay!" He said desperately. His only response from one of them was, "—freak." His head sank.  
  
"Nobody cares about me...:"  
  
"I do batman!" Snare said, holding her arms out happily.  
  
"Oh no freaking way, Snare! Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes. It had been so long I thought the Dark Legion finally caught you!" He exclaimed, giving her a big, bear hug. "Where have you been? Chronicle hunts again?"  
  
"Tch, what else?" She grinned, "I found a bit more than what I bargained for this time though," gesturing towards Shadow. The ebony hedgehog raised an eyebrow. "I present, Shadow the Hedgehog, circa, some.... 2000 years ago or so." She said, shrugging.  
  
"Ahh," the bat said, holding out a hand, "Good to meet ya, the name's Klip, Klip Nightwind!" Snare just rolled her eyes at his horrible Jimmy Bond: 008 impression. Shadow merely stared at his outstretched hand.  
  
"You'll have to excuse him Klip, he must have forgotten his manners in that stasis tube!" She said with a laugh.  
  
"Heh, yeah," nonchalantly returning his hand to his side, his expression turning serious. "You know, Kragok doubled the bounty on your head, your hide's work 100 million Kal by now! If I were you, I's seriously be on the look out for bounty hunters."  
  
"So I noticed," she said, pointing to the wanted picture, "Gawd, worst photo EVER! When did they take that, when I was drunk!?" She protested, she was about to say something else, when—  
  
_Tssseeeewwww!!!_ A blast from a small particle rifle sliced clear through her shoulder. She cried out in pain, tightly clutching the wound, deep-red blood staining her dark green gloves.  
  
"Damn bounty hunters!" She managed to yell angrily, still clutching the hole in her shoulder.  
  
"You two make a break for the cathedral!" Klip shouted, pointing North, "I'll see if I can hold 'em off!" And with that he took to the skies, shouting obscene insults at the surrounding gunmen, drawing their fire to him, and easily dodging. Snare forced herself up, took a few steps and collapsed again.  
  
"Ugh... Dammit..." She said under her breath. All around her, bit of the street seemed to explode with blaster fire. She was relieved most of these bounty hunters were such lousy shots. She tried getting up again, but felt herself being lifted by strong hands instead. She heard Klip shouting, but he suddenly sounded so far away, and was fading fast. She felt as though she were moving at a great speed, but had no idea how. Looking up, her blurred vision somewhat making out the face of the mysterious black hedgehog whom just hours before she had awakened. Then everything faded to black. 

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So there's part two for ya. Sorry it's so short. ;; Anyway, if anyone would like to see any character designs from this series, check out my DA archive-- ann-chovi.deviantart.com


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